Stardock's new game "Elemental: War of Magic"

[Mortmal]

I assume thees two days 1 patch, a little one and another later in the night, cause right now at very last version (legit version) its unplayable.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

I heard they're having issues with ATI cards, so that might be it. I played without a single noticeable bug.

 

[VonVentrue]

DONT BUY IT!
I already said how bad the campaign is (...)

In Stardock's defence, I'll just point out that the campaign is a glorified tutorial. The "sandbox mode" is where the fun's supposed to be at.

 

[Mortmal]

No, its not a glorified tutorial , it explain absolutely nothing, if i had never played a 4X game i would be completely lost.The campaign is a pile of uttterly broken scripts , cliché story , and poorly done combat,, basic mobs wiping your whole armies with an instant spell, or just stack your 8 infantry autoresolve and win in all finish the cmapaign in one hour , thats deep strategy indeed.
If i was a developper i would be ashamed to show this , i am not trying to look edgy and cool and get kkkodex points, its really that bad.
Now the sandbox part is where the fun is at yes, except i cant play it , maybe its an ati cardi issue, but theres definitively many people with various good rigs having problems.I doesnt even look that good to require so much hardware.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

This game does seem to be an inexplicable resource hog. Finally got a CTD after about 2 hours of gameplay, which is annoying, and it also seems to be a bit laggy. Still, I enjoy the game. I'll probably wait until there are another patch out before I get really into it, but still, the complaints I have at the moment are fairly minor and fixable.

 

[Lightknight]

Lack of information. Hidden numbers, hard to figure out how powerful units are, how the UI works, etc.

Same problem as with GalCiv2. They really should get rid of people responsible for UI design.

 

[BethesdaLove]

Lack of information. Hidden numbers, hard to figure out how powerful units are, how the UI works, etc.

Same problem as with GalCiv2. They really should get rid of people responsible for UI design.

At release? If not, you are lying. All numbers are there in GalCiv2.

 

[dragonfk]

In a related news:

I've started playing Fall from Heaven 2 for Civilization 4 and I never thought that it's so awesome as Skyway claimed it to be, but it is. It rocks and shatters my world. I just spend whole day enlarging my tree hugging&lovin empire. Moment I fell in love? When I've managed to defend walled city with 10 units(1 hero and 2 mages) against 60 units. Never had a better moment in Civ 4. I don't quite remember when was the last time I had so much fun with a 4X game.

 

[Zed]

Fall from heaven is great except for some of the obvious ripped art and assets.

 

[Ruprekt]

ui design should be the one thing stardock get right seeing how that's their business (reskinning windows)

?

 

[Lightknight]

All numbers are there in GalCiv2.

I would say not. After deperately trying for several hours to understand just how much would building a laboratory or a ship cost me exactly, i spat on this piece of trash and went back to enjoy CIV4, where i can get ANY sort of information instantly, and i know EXACTLY what immediate OR delayed effects my actions will have, and how much will it cost me now AND every turn.

 

[Metro]

So two years build up and it's terrible?

 

[Malakal]

So two years build up and it's terrible?

Maybe they are going to patch it properly, then we get another soulless GalCivFantasy.

Meh.

 

[LazyD]

So two years build up and it's terrible

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

I really wouldn't call it terrible, but I could get why someone wouldn't like it. There does seem to be something lacking in it, but none of the basic functions are inherently flawed. Pretty poor status on release, though.

 

[Mortmal]

The release is for me and many other so unstable thats its not even possible to really judge gameplay, since the first early patch ending turn is likely to cause crash.Some have zero problems, feel free to play russian roulette and try.
It probably could turn out a good game,the sandbox part is salvageable, its not like someone made a shooter of a rpg , its a true 4X with good stuff in.
Right now they sold us a beta.It has otential to become a really great game if they balance units add unique abilities to them fix perfomance issues, improve randomization, but i am not paying for potential, i expected at least something playable out of the box.

 

[Metro]

The whole 'randomized maps are replaced by user mods' line was enough to steer me away from it. Still, terrible is probably too strong a choice of words on my part. Just disappointed as this game was getting a lot of hype.

 

[Zeus]

The whole 'randomized maps are replaced by user mods' line was enough to steer me away from it. Still, terrible is probably too strong a choice of words on my part. Just disappointed as this game was getting a lot of hype.

Okay, it looks like the landmass is based on seeds, for balance issues (everything else is randomly placed). They're promising a "lot more seeds" in the coming weeks. I presume that means players can make their own as well.

Anyone who wants random fractal landmasses can delete/move the seeds folder ("not recommended") or just wait for the inevitable True Random option in a coming patch.

I'm not that worried. By the time I'm done learning the game and start to notice things are getting samey, there'll be an un/official fix.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

The release is for me and many other so unstable thats its not even possible to really judge gameplay, since the first early patch ending turn is likely to cause crash.Some have zero problems, feel free to play russian roulette and try.
It probably could turn out a good game,the sandbox part is salvageable, its not like someone made a shooter of a rpg , its a true 4X with good stuff in.
Right now they sold us a beta.It has otential to become a really great game if they balance units add unique abilities to them fix perfomance issues, improve randomization, but i am not paying for potential, i expected at least something playable out of the box.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a staunch defender, and I agree with a lot of it. The game isn't finished, but that does seem to be a pretty common state for strategy games to be released in. I wouldn't recommend it to someone right now, but I think there's a ton of potential for the future.

 

[Mortmal]

Its common to release then patch later but it never been that bad, recently i played victoria, balance problems but playable at least, distant worlds no problem whatsoever, and those are indies games with even smaller budget.
They had moneyfor elemental, they had a 5millions budget but no random map is considered ok, no apologies, cause modders will just make them...When i preordered i wasnt doubting such feature would t be implemented,they promised stuff like armies like in LOTRO movies etc etc...
My first 4X was civilisation on the amiga, it was baffling to see a world generated, its a must have.Master of magic had it too.
As always, like for rpgs , is it that much to ask from today developers to have at least the same features included in 15year old games ?
Main reviewers will shred it , it will get 50% score at best , people wont buy and investors will think 4X are not worth making as people arent interested into them, like pure rpgs.

 

[Zeus]

Yeah, but Master of Magic was also infamously glitchy upon release. There were tons of bugs and crashes, problems with the AI, a lot of reviewers couldn't look past that. Others did and scored it much higher. It wound up being listed as a "Post-Patch Classic" or something like that on Home of the Underdogs.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

There was supposed to be a release day patch (which is today) but I'm guessing they had to shelve it for a few days. Ultimately, I get while you're pissed, and CTDs and whatnot are a huge pain in any game, but you're going to get that on release with most games. That's just a fact of life for PC games. This one may be a bit buggier than most on release, but if the day 0 patch fixes the major technical issues then I feel it won't be a big deal in the long run.

 

[Destroid]

Better or worse than the release state of HoI3?

 

[mornick]

I gotta say, what a load of whinging.

Anyway, I am enjoying it - not that I am not hoping for a lot of improvements though. I stayed up playing it until 5 am the night after its release. And that is despite the fact that I'm suffering (no other word would be more appropriate) from a bug that CTDs the game whenever I try to reload a savegame from within the game (e.g. your favorite hero just got eaten by a troll).

I've already posted a thread on the elemental forums with some of my observations. Click for wall of text: http://forums.elementalgame.com/392137

 

[Takeda Kenshi]

Definitely a lot of whining.

All you need to do, is wait a bit until they fix shit, then play. Really, really simple.

Without games like this (at least from a design stand point), we'd be stuck with Grand Theft Auto 210 (or some other turd ass casual turd.) I support these kind of games not because they are released in impeccable condition, but because one day they WILL be awesome and I WILL play them for hours and hours. If I don't support them, they go bankrupt and I end up with no future games. Seems like an investment worth making (provided you have fuckall money.)